This
cartoon mocks the attempt by President Andrew Johnson to transform the
National Union Party into a vehicle to oppose Congressional
Reconstruction. For several months, the president and
Congressional Republicans had become increasingly at odds over
Reconstruction policy. In December 1865, Congress refused to
recognize the state governments organized under President Andrew
Johnson's lenient plan. In early 1866, Johnson twice vetoed the
Freedmen's Bureau Act and the Civil Rights Act before Congress enacted
the legislation by overriding his vetoes. In June, Congress approved
a proposed Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granting
citizenship to the former slaves, a measure Johnson and his supporters
opposed. Racial tensions across the South erupted in riots in
Memphis (May) and New Orleans (July).

In the spring of
1866, Montgomery Blair, the former postmaster general, and Alexander
Randall, the assistant postmaster general, organized National Union
Clubs to support President Johnson against the Congressional
Republicans. On June 11, Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment,
and that evening Johnson agreed to a national convention of opponents of
Congressional Reconstruction. On June 25, Senator James Doolittle,
Democrat of Wisconsin, and Secretary of State William Henry Seward
drafted the official call for a National Union Convention to be held in
Philadelphia on August 14. Its purpose was to uphold states'
rights against the "usurpation and centralization of power in
Congress."

Johnson hoped that a coalition of Democrats and conservative
Republicans could win control of Congress in the 1866 elections, or at
least enough seats to allow the president to wield his veto power
effectively. Upon that electoral foundation, he wanted to
construct a new political party. A major obstacle to the latter
was that conservative Republicans, such as Seward, and Democrats,
such as Doolittle, agreed on few issues other than a shared opposition
to Radical Reconstruction. In order to attract moderates, there
was no direct criticism of the Fourteenth Amendment in the convention
call, a point that fooled few but disturbed some of Johnson's advisors
nonetheless.

Republican condemnation of the convention call was harsh, and on July
12, the Republican congressional caucus passed a resolution that effectively ousted any Republican who took part
in it. The only "no" vote was cast by Congressman Henry
Raymond, the founder and publisher of The New York Times, who had also been the
only House Republican to vote against the override of Johnson's veto of
the Civil Rights Act. In fact, Raymond organized the National
Union Convention and served as its chairman.In retaliation, Republicans in his district refused to renominate
him for Congress, and few other Republicans attended the convention
because the movement’s opposition to the Fourteenth Amendment and
dominance by Democrats repelled many moderates and even conservatives.

At the president's behest, Senator Doolittle wrote cabinet members in
mid-July to solicit their formal endorsement of the National Union
Convention. Seward, Navy Secretary Gideon Welles, and Treasury
Secretary Hugh McCulloch complied, but Attorney General James Speed,
Postmaster General William Dennison, and Interior Secretary James
Harlan, all resigned rather than submit. Like the three who
resigned, War Secretary Edwin Stanton abhorred the convention as an
organization consisting mainly of former Copperheads (Peace Democrats)
and Confederates. However, Stanton decided to stay in the cabinet
in order to resist the president's effort to thwart enforcement of
Congressional Reconstruction.

The featured cartoon caricatures scenes from the National Union
Convention of August 14-16. The center circle mimics the opening
procession led by Governor Darius Couch (right) of Massachusetts and
Governor James Orr (left) of South Carolina, linked arm in arm. As
cartoonist Nast writes, the incident reportedly filled "the eyes of
thousands with tears of joy" as the chief executives of the first
rebel state ("first gun") and the leading Unionist state
("first blood") symbolized sectional reconciliation.
Surrounding the two governors, a crocodile and copperhead snake shed
"crocodile tears" (center and top), as does President Johnson
(lower-center) and a fox and goose (top; animal rivals and symbols of
the Democratic Party).

Doolittle, Randall, Blair, and Orville Browning (the new Interior
Secretary), appointed themselves as an executive committee to maintain
an atmosphere of harmony and moderation. At the top of the
cartoon, "the spirit of concord and brotherly affection" is
manifested by former Confederates and Unionists kissing, including
Raymond (in dark suit on the upper-far-left), and
by Randall (upper-right) kicking two leaders of the former Copperheads,
Congressmen Fernando Wood of Ohio (left) and Clement Vallandingham of
Ohio (right), out of the convention. The executive committee
refused to recognize the two men's credentials as elected
delegates. The "patriotic sentiment and unbroken
harmony" in the lower panel shows how Doolittle (lower-right) has
padlocked the mouths of those who might dissent.

The National Union Convention praised President Johnson, denounced
the Radical Republicans, and encouraged the electorate to vote only for
candidates supporting the immediate readmission of all the former
Confederate states. Delegates and their supporters characterized
the convention as a great success, while Republican opponents (like
Nast) ridiculed it. On August 28, Johnson and key advisors went on
a campaign tour (the ill-fated "swing 'round the circle"),
which generated more negative publicity and political opposition for the
president. Harper's Weekly published this Nast cartoon
while Johnson was in the middle of his trip. In the fall
elections, Republicans won a large majority of seats in Congress, more
than enough to override any presidential veto.